


Possibilities

by LittleSweetCheeks



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: M/M, Separation, Thinking of you, remembering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-23
Updated: 2018-01-23
Packaged: 2019-03-08 14:16:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13460004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleSweetCheeks/pseuds/LittleSweetCheeks
Summary: He always wondered why they couldn’t ever get the beautiful winters pictured on holiday cards. Instead of picture perfect snowy scenes that made men write beautiful songs and paint timeless paintings, they got cloudy skies and soggy, dreary weather. It was a wet kind of cold that was not at all inviting.==He supposed there were worse places to end up living that Southern California, but after a lifetime of living on the east coast, and a short stint in Seattle, it didn’t feel much like winter. The sky was clear and blue and the air warm, it was a far cry from the snowy scenes of postcards and paintings he remembered.





	Possibilities

He always wondered why they couldn’t ever get the beautiful winters pictured on holiday cards. Instead of picture perfect snowy scenes that made men write beautiful songs and paint timeless paintings, they got cloudy skies and soggy, dreary weather. It was a wet kind of cold that was not at all inviting.

Instead, Spencer was dressed in thick flannel pajamas and heavy wool socks, wrapped in a warm robe and then buried under an assortment of blankets. He wasn’t due in to work for the next three days, barring a catastrophe, and he had zero intention of going outside until then. He’d adjusted his sofa so he could watch out his large front window as easily as he could see the television, not that he was really concentrating on either. Instead, his focus was on the other living thing in the apartment. Curled in his lap, happy to be warm on this miserable day, was his recently acquired pet rat, Sprocket. It was an unfortunate name, given to the young rodent by the little boy in the apartment a floor down, but the rat seemed to recognize it, so Spencer was reluctant to try and change it.

Sprocket had come to be in Spencer’s life due to an overheard conversation in the building’s laundry room. Seven-year-old Dallas had apparently been begging his parents for a year for a pet and had gotten a no each time. The boy had started with asking for a horse, but eventually understood that the logistics of owning a horse and living in an apartment were a bit difficult to overcome. He’d then progressed down through requesting a pig, dog, cat, and ferret before finally asking for a rat. Spencer could only guess how his parents had debated before finally giving in and buying Sprocket plus enough bells and whistles to make all the other rats in the pet shop jealous.

Unfortunately for Dallas, it turned out that he younger brother Austin was allergic to furry animals. By the time their parents worked it out, Dallas was attached to Sprocket and heartbroken. The conversation Spencer had overheard that day had included Dallas suggesting to his mother that they give up Austin instead of Sprocket.

Spencer wondered if all siblings had moments like that.

In a moment of selflessness, Spencer had introduced himself and offered to provide the permanent residence for Sprocket, only if Dallas and a parent cared for him whenever he was out of town. It turned out to be a match made in heaven. In true rat fashion, Sprocket was highly intelligent and Spencer found himself frequently hanging out with the little black and white guy around the apartment and it seemed Sprocket enjoyed the freedom to scurry and climb.

Looking from the ball of fluff in his lap to the disappointing weather outside, Spencer couldn’t help but wonder how Aaron was doing now.

==

Aaron sat on the patio and watched Jack kicking around a soccer ball with two of his friends. He supposed there were worse places to end up living that Southern California, but after a lifetime of living on the east coast, and a short stint in Seattle, it didn’t feel much like winter. The sky was clear and blue and the air warm, it was a far cry from the snowy scenes of postcards and paintings he remembered.

He was casually dressed in faded jeans and a short-sleeved tee-shirt, feet bare on the warm concrete. The sun warmed his skin better than any blanket he could remember. He didn’t work now, though he knew eventually he would have to find something to do, Jack was far too independent these days for him to be able to stay busy just around the house. For now, though, he rattled around their small house tending the garden and doing repairs. He had no immediate plans to do anything more.

At his feet, taking a break from chasing the boys’ soccer ball, was their new chocolate lab, Samson or Sammy for short. Aaron had never been willing to allow Jack to have a pet in the time he mentally referred to as _Before._ Before when he had a busy job, before Jack was at risk, before his priorities were changed. As soon as they were clear of the Marshall’s. however, he taken Jack straight out and, together, they’d picked out a puppy.

As much as Sammy was to be Jack’s dog, Aaron found himself truly enjoying the companionship. Sammy liked a good run around the neighborhoods and he seemed to have a special sense for when Aaron was having a bad day and would force the man to pet him for hours. Big brown eyes starting up at him, happy to be needed.

Leaning down now, Aaron scratched the dog’s ears and was rewarded with a happy grin. As he stared down at Sammy, his mind wandered a bit and he found himself wondering how Spencer was doing.

==

Spencer stared at his phone. He wasn’t even sure if Aaron’s number was the same anymore. He wasn’t even quite sure of where the other man was located now, only that he was within the lower forty-eight states, information compliments of Rossi.

Finally deciding it was worth the risk, he snapped a picture of Sprocket curled on the blanket and sent it to the old number with a caption- _Meet Sprocket, my new roomie._

==

Aaron had heard about Spencer’s ordeal once he was released from protection. Dave had admitted that he’d been forbidden from telling the former unit chief about the young genius’s predicament in case Hotch had felt compelled to leave to help. In the weeks since his release, guilt from staying away had kept him silent.

He looked down at Sammy, spread out now in the sun, and decided it was as good an olive branch as any. He snapped a picture of the dog happily sleeping and sent it to the number he could never forget with a caption- _Meet Sammy, Jack’s new dog_.

==

Spencer startled when his phone announced a message as soon as he pressed send. Blinking at it a moment, he opened the message and saw it was from Aaron. After all this time. Opening the picture and message, he looked at a happy looking dog laying in the sun. In the distance he could just make out Jack and some other boys playing and he smiled. It was nice to hear from Aaron, even if it was just a photo of their new pet. It meant the older man was thinking of him.

Maybe he still had a chance.

==

The vibration of an incoming message immediately following his message being sent, surprised Aaron so much he dropped his phone. Picking it up, he swiped his phone across the screen and was greeted with the sight of a black and white rat curled up on a familiar looking blanket. A rat was such a Spencer pet.

It made him feel good, however, that it appeared the younger man had been thinking of him even after everything he’d been through. He wondered if that meant he hadn’t missed his chance.

 


End file.
